The movie, shown in the Galway Theatre, was a magical "fast-moving" snow-filled film that bought the young up to speed with the wonders of Christmas and the old (ish) back to their childhood dreams and experiences.  It went down well with the audience because it was packed full of adventure and never-ending bravery, jokes and humour!

The story line was based on a young reindeer, Niko, and his dream of finally meeting his real father who was on the special flying forces, Santa's reindeers! What a cool way to describe his batch of reindeers!  He had never met his father who had a brief romance with his mother and hey presto he arrived but his father did not know about him.  He inherited the special trait of flight from his father but had not mastered it yet.  And so his adventures start with the pursuit of learning to fly which lead a pack of hair-rising scary wolves to attack Niko's family of reindeers.  They all survive but the group are disgusted with Niko and so he decides to head to "Santa's fell" to find his real father. His friend heads off with him and all the adventures that follow are hilarious, nail-biting and at moments quite sad!  Keep an eye out for "marshmallow", she's so cute!

An hidden meaning in the movie is that all kids do not live with their real dad or that they may the subsitute dads and thats ok.  I found the movie to be of topclass performance and you were kept on your toes whether it was a scary or funny part!! I brought along my niece age 7, (nearly 8 she says) her mum and my teenage brother! From the 7yr old to the 29 yr old it was thoroughly enjoyed and discussed on the way home! Hats off to the "voices" of the movie, they were superb!

One tip for the future is that I rang the theatre asking would the movie (i.e. the theatre) be suitable for a 2yr4mth old but they said that it probably wouldnt be... Imagine my surprise when i arrived to see all excited faces of loads of toddlers... just a helpful tip...

Hope didnt ruin the story for any who haven't see a "well worth seeing" movie and thanks again to the organisers of such a fab website!!

Ann

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‘Niko And The Way To The Stars’ is a new animated movie coming out this November. It is so great to see Irish involvement (company called Magma Films based in Galway) in a feature length animated movie. It tells the story of a reindeer boy who longs to fly and dreams of one day meeting his father who is a member of the famous Santa’s Flying Forces - an elite and somewhat bonkers group of reindeers who fly Santa’s sled. His longing to fly and find his real father leads him on a difficult and exciting journey accompanied by his true friend Julius, a flying squirrel, and Wilma a singing weasel whom they meet along the way.

He makes the long and dangerous trek to Santa's Grotto however, followed by a pack of hungry wolves. It is a cuddly, innocent and sweet adventure aimed at the very young. With Santa, Christmas, flying reindeers, wolves that are not overly scary, what's not to like?

This one is for the young ones but in saying that, my wife and I brought our 2 and half year old daughter to see it in the Town Hall, and I enjoyed it a lot.  I loved to see the expressions on her little face and laughing along with the rest audience she loved it.  This is an excellent movie to bring the whole family to see they will all love it.  A film for any time of the year, but most definitely coming up to Christmas.  Excellent.

Marcus



On release at Eye Cinema from Friday 28th November
Visit the Niko Website